Agricultural minister launches soil health card (SHC) mobile app.

The app will benefit field-level workers as it will automatically capture GIS coordinates while registering sample details at the time of sample collection in the field and indicate the location from where the sample has been collected.

SHC informs farmers about nutrients status of the soils along with the recommendation on appropriate dosage of nutrients to improve soil health and fertility. A farm will get the soil card once in every 2 years so that nutrients deficiency can be regularly detected and improved.

Imbalanced use of fertilizers damages the fields and reduces production. first phase (2015-17) 100 million SHCs have been distributed so far. The aim of the Ministry is to provide SHC to all 120 million farm holdings by December, 2017. The second phase began on May 1, 2017, and will continue for the year 2017 to 2019.

Shri Singh said that Soil Health Card is prepared in 14 local languages and distributed to the farmers. Now the SHC can be prepared in local dialects such as Kumaoni, Garhwali, Khasi, and Garo. farmers should use nutrients on their farms as per the recommendations in the card. This will reduce the cost of production and increase the output and income of the farmers.

SHC portal has been linked to the Integrated Fertilizer Management System (iFMS) and distribution of fertilizers has started in 16 districts on the basis Soil Health Card recommendation as a pilot scheme. It is worth mentioning that on the Occasion of World Soil Day, programs are being organized in all the districts at the state level to generate awareness about Soil Health. To promote SHC, various initiatives are being organized by state governments and ICAR, its institutions and Krishi Vigyan Kendras to promote Soil Health Card scheme.